Louisiana Voice

In case you think Cathy Derbonne was going to go quietly into the night after a state district judge dismissed her wrongful firing lawsuit, then you don’t know Cathy Derbonne.

Derbonne was the executive director of the State Police Commission who was forced into resigning her position during a January 12, 2017, meeting of the commission. During a recess of that meeting, commission Chairman Thomas Doss and other members repeatedly pressured her by telling her they had the votes to fire her.

Believing she had engaged in activities protected under law, she nevertheless resigned in lieu of being fired.

She filed suit under R.S 23:967, better known as the Louisiana Whistleblower Statute on Jan. 9, 2018, and on Aug. 14, 2019, Judge William Morvant of the 19^th District Court granted the state’s exception of no cause of action, dismissing Derbonne’s lawsuit, with prejudice and assessing all costs to her.

But on Oct. 14 (last Wednesday) a three-judge panel of the Louisiana’s First Circuit Court of Appeal unanimously reversed Morvant and remanded the case to state district court for trial. Court costs of $1,779 were assessed to the State Police Commission.

While Cathy Derbonne has not yet won her case, she will at least have her day in court and the State Police Commission is going to have to show that it was justified in pressuring her to quit. The alternative will be for the commission to do a little sputtering and posturing and breast-beating before it eventually – and quietly – settles with Derbonne before trial. The last thing the State Police Commission wants, after all, is for its tactics in this ugly matter to go public.

So, what was it that she did to incur the wrath of commission members?

To be as succinct as possible, she did her job.

And what was it the commission did that was so terrible?

Well, the commission is the equivalent to the State Civil Service Commission – except that it acts only on matters concerning State Troopers and as such, was little more than an extension of the Louisiana State Troopers’ Association.

If you remember, all this was occurring during the turbulent administration of former State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson and the commission at that time was to Edmonson what William Barr is to Donald Trump – the ultimate sycophant, willing and eager to carry out his every wish.

Edmonson resigned under pressure in March 2017 but more than a year earlier, in December 2015, Derbonne was informed that active classified members of the Louisiana State Police (LSP), through the Louisiana State Troopers Association (LSTA), were making political contributions and engaging in political activities contrary to the Louisiana State Constitution.

“Derbonne began an investigation of the prohibited activities of current, active and classified members of the State Police Service and brought the matters to the attention of the Commission,” her petition said. “Derbonne alleged that on January 13, 2016, Franklin Kyle III, Chairman of the Commission, sent an email to Derbonne advising that she was not to take any steps regarding the LSTA’ s political activities and, further, stating that the commission had no jurisdiction over the LSTA, only its classified employees/members. The next day, Derbonne was advised that the executive director of the LSTA had been making political contributions in his name, but that he was reimbursed by the LSTA from dues collected from its members.”

Derbonne further alleged that she subsequently reported the prohibited activities to multiple entities outside of the commission. On March 7, 2016, Derbonne reported the improper illegal activities to the Louisiana Board of Ethics. On March 16, 2016, she forwarded a written report of her findings to Gov. John Bel Edwards and his counsel. She met with the governor’ s counsel on March 28, 2016, and was advised that the commission members who had committed the prohibited activities, as well as Chairman Kyle, would be given the opportunity to resign.

Subsequent to those developments, commission members Kyle, Freddie Pitcher and William Goldring resigned.

She claims in her lawsuit that State Trooper Thomas Doss, at the LSTA convention in Lafayette on June 24, 2016, said that Derbonne had caused the resignations of the three commission members and that she was not following commission rules and policy, that she had retained outside legal counsel without authorization and that she “had lost her mind.” She says she was later advised that Doss had been “monitoring and observing” her daily routine.

Doss was elected as the State Police representative on the commission on July 14 and quickly was elected chairman by the other commission members. Less than a month later, on Aug.11, the commission attempted to reduce Derbonne’s pay. During the same time period, she says Edmonson and “at least four of his top deputies” received “unlawful and unauthorized pay increases.”

On Dec. 8, she alleges commission members requested that Derbonne create a position of deputy director in case her husband became ill or she “got in a car wreck on her way” to a commission meeting, a suggestion she says she perceived as a threat.

A month later, on Jan. 7, 2017, she says she received an anonymous letter advising her that Doss was leading an attempt to have her removed as executive director “at the behest of (LSP) upper command.”

Despite the claims contained in her petition, Judge Morvant on Aug. 14, 2019, ruled that Derbonne’s petition, as well as all supplemental, amending and restated claims “are DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE at plaintiff’s cost.”

But the First Circuit’s three-judge panel wasn’t buying it:

“We render judgment finding that Cathy Derbonne’s petition states both a cause of action and a right of action,” the First Circuit ruling said. “This matter is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. Costs in the amount of $1,779 are assessed to …the State Police Commission.”

That would be you, the taxpayer, but it seems state officials aren’t concerned with such matters when they’re busy covering their collective backsides.